Sea snakes anticipate tropical cyclone
Sea snakes anticipate tropical cyclone
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海蛇预测热带气旋
DOI：
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
M. Tu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Y. Liu;H. Lillywhite;M. Tu
在这里，我们报告了海蛇的预期行为，并为它们在灾难性旋风中生存的感觉机制提供了第一个证据。2009年8月7日至9日，台风莫拉克对兰屿造成了严重的影响，导致兰屿沿岸的海螺（Laticauda spp.）数量急剧减少。沿海地区可见的海环礁的丰富程度与气压有关，但与驱动海浪的降水或风速无关。我们几乎没有发现风暴造成直接死亡的证据，而且风暴过后大量可见的海蛇数量又回到了风暴前的水平。数据表明，海环蛇的生存取决于热带气旋之前对低压的感官感知，随后采取行动避免可能影响沿海种群的致命风暴能量。海蛇可能会在海岸火山岩下的洞穴中找到避难所。
Here, we report anticipatory behaviors of sea snakes and provide the first evidence for a sensory mechanism by which they survive a catastrophic cyclone. Sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) are normally abundant in littoral habitats at Lanyu (Orchid Island), Taiwan but disappeared coincident with falling barometric pressure prior to typhoon Morakot, which impacted the island severely during 7–9 August 2009. The abundance of sea kraits that are visible within the littoral zone correlates with barometric pressure, but not with precipitation or wind speed, which drives the surf. We found very little evidence of direct mortality caused by the storm, and the visible abundance of sea kraits following the storm returned to pre-storm levels. Data suggest that survival of sea kraits depends on the sensory perception of low pressures preceding a tropical cyclone, followed by behaviors which avoid the lethal storm energies potentially affecting this coastal population. Sea kraits likely find refuge in cavernous spaces beneath volcanic rocks of the seacoast.